Susan Graham

Uuuuh #subtip #querytip I guess. I wouldn't think this needs to be said, but every few months I get one of these.

Some advice to creators: if you are not a client, please do not follow up every few days - every couple weeks is fine to too soon. #subtip #querytip

Clients comes first & many agents have second jobs. I know you're anxious, but be kind to us please. Most of us are always dying.

Hi loves, ELM does Not take submissions by mail. If you are an illustrator, please don't send me your postcards, etc, delightful as they are. Please send me your query telling me what you're looking for & what projects you want to pursue. Thank you! #subtip #querytip

Hallo buddies! If you don't send your writing along with your query email, I can't evaluate it! I have 2000 emails in my submissions at any given time & don't have the time to chase you down - pls follow submission guidelines! Thanks! #subtip #querytip

Maybe I'm the only one who has feelings about this, but friends, your turnaround to make a decision once you have an offer of rep doesn't have to be a week or even two. If an agent loves your work, they can wait for you longer. The decision needs to be right. #subtip #querytip -

Advice! Don't email agents like you know us, please, especially if you get our name wrong, and don't assume we know what you're talking about if you ask us a question about the industry with no context. #subtip #querytip

LOL at the guy in submissions who just put Susanna, Shana, and Susan in the subject line of this email & began it with, "Gentlemen." 101, kids. Pick ONE person, and research their gender. #subtip #querytip

Hello! I understand if you've gotten a pass & are sending a revision starting from last correspondence & making clear this is a revision. Don't send the exact same query & submission unchanged & DON'T attach to a pass. We can see that you haven't done the work. #subtip #querytip

What if I started sending things to editors with the title & author in the subject & the body of the email is just "AND WITH THAT PLEASE FIND THE ATTACHED." It would be bad, right? So maybe don't query agents that way. You have to serve your work, friends. #querytip #subtip

-looking for other people's clients. And never getting paid. I love you all, I really do, but consider when you're asking for a professional's free labor, please. This is the etiquette part. #subtip #querytip

-about something we very likely can't help you with and which adds to our submissions workload in a way that... uh... won't make us money. Consider submissions is important bc we're looking for clients, but if I regularly do this back & forth, at some pt #subtip #querytip I end-

-people we know, AND we want you to succeed. When you email back to ask us this, you're adding to our submissions inbox. Mine currently has about 3,000 emails in it. Sometimes I get it below 1,000 & two days later it's back over. #subtip #querytip you're asking us to dialogue -

-in addition to our own tastes. If it made sense to recommend you query another agent (or agency, which is what you're really asking us on some level, to send you to our competition), we probably would have done so. We actually do think about our friends #subtip #querytip and-

A baby bit more inbox etiquette! If someone sends a pass on your work, please don't respond asking to recommend you to someone else. This seems rude of me to say, on its face, but imagine an agent already is usually thinking about the market & who would buy it -#subtip #querytip

Everyone has different rules - our guidelines say if we haven't gotten back to you in 6 weeks consider it a pass, but we're often behind & I'm looking at older queries. After the 6-8 week mark, it's perfectly acceptable to follow up. Feel free! #querytip #subtip

If a submissions acct unsubscribes from your newsletter, please don't resubscribe them. Most folks at that point will block your email or send to spam, & then no one will read your query. Serve your work, please. Respect people's time. #subtip #querytip

Don't subscribe a submissions account to your newsletter. 1) It's rude to subscribe people without asking in general. 2) Submissions is for submissions. If you clog the submissions inbox, I am less likely to read or be excited about your actual query. #subtip #querytip

Please do not change the name of the person you're querying. Ex. many people in publishing do not change their name when they get married, & it looks esp creeps if you email them as Mrs. [their spouse's name you have no reason to know]. Use their actual name. #subtip #querytip

If you're querying & it's a referral, 1) make sure it's someone the person you're querying actually knows (it's confusing if they don't know the person referring you...) and 2) sometimes it's helpful to put their name in the subject line as well as the query. #subtip #querytip

Short thread for today as I spend the morning in submissions: First, you don't have to email back to apologize for grammatical errors or character names swapped. We all make mistakes. Most agents don't hold grammar against you as long as we can read your work. #subtip #querytip